Source: Washington Post
by Nick Bunker
“In March 1776, while the redcoats remained under siege in Boston, a torrent of copy about the colonies continued to flow from the printing press in London. Every notable British writer felt obliged to take a stand for or against the American cause and on the rights and wrongs of war. On March 9, there appeared the weightiest contribution of all …. It was ‘An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,’ by Scottish polymath Adam Smith. … Europe’s empires in America had their origins, Smith wrote, in ‘folly and injustice,’ the thirst for gold that led the conquistadors to Mexico and Peru. Smith thought British colonies to be the best of a bad lot, ‘only somewhat less illiberal and oppressive than that of any of the rest.'” (03/05/26)